On 23rd May 2017 my Dad, John Armstrong, suffered a Cardiac Arrest and passed away at 60 years old. He had no known issues with his heart so it was very sudden and unexpected.

At the time he went into Cardiac Arrest he was at the Virgin Lounge in Sheffield (It was one of his favourite places to go laterly.) Luckily the staff there had recently had first aid training and had been told where the nearest defibrillator was and quickly went to get it and brought it back to try and resuscitate my dad. They did manage to revive him and get him to hospital but unfortunately he passed away.

When you have a cardiac arrest it is vital that defibrillation be provided at critical time, and for every minute that passes chances of survival reduce by 7-10%, So by that logic if it takes 5 minutes to get a defibrillator your chances could already be as little as 50% which is shocking!

Currently not all shops or buildings have their own defibrillator and whilst there will be one dotted around it's likely to be a few minutes away.

As a family we are very thankful to the Staff and customers at the Virgin Lounge for their quick thinking and actions trying to help my dad. We would like to raise money to buy a defibrillator in my dads memory to be kept at the Virgin Lounge to help prevent any other families losing someone they love.

Thank you for taking the time to read this 😊Xx